The Cherokee
Since earliest contact with European explorers in the 1500's, the Cherokee Nation has been identified as one of the most advanced among Native American tribes. Cherokee culture thrived for thousands of years in the southeastern United States before European contact. After contact, Cherokee society and culture continued to develop and progress. Soon, they had shaped a bicultural government and a society that matched the most At the time of contact, the Cherokee were settled, agricultural people living in about 200 fairly large villages. The typical town consisted of 30 to 60 houses and a large council house. Homes were somewhat like upside-down baskets, consisting of a circular framework interwoven with branches and plastered with mud. The entire structure was partially in the ground. In later periods, log cabins came into use. They usually consisted of one door and a smoke hole in the bark-covered roof. Their council houses were seven-sided to represent the seven clans of the Cherokee: Bird, Paint, Deer, Wolf, Blue, Long Hair, and Wild Pot
educational system of 144 elementary schools, the Cherokee Male and Female Seminaries, and two higher education institutions, rivaled all others. Particularly noteworthy was the invention of written language by Sequoyah in 1821. Utilizing an ingenious alphabet of 86 characters, almost the entire Cherokee Nation became literate within a few years. This contribution of Sequoyah led the Cherokee people to a level of literacy higher than their white counterparts, all before the statehood of Oklahoma in 1907. ato. Each tribe elected two chiefs, a Peace Chief who counseled during peaceful times and a War Chief who made decisions during times of war. However, the chiefs did not rule absolutely. Decision making was a more democraticprocess, with tribal members having the opportunity to voice concerns. The counsel houses were also the sight of the sacred fire, which the Cherokee had kept burning from the time immemorial. The Cherokees rebuilt their progressive lifestyle from the remnants of the society and the culture they were forced to leave behind. The years between
Some common words found in the essay are:
United European, War Chief, Cherokee Nation, Territory Cherokees, Europeans Desire, Female Seminaries, Trail Tears, War Cherokee, Indian Removal, Native American, indian territory, cherokee nation, trail tears, civil war, southeastern united, times war, contact cherokee, agricultural people, cherokee society, society culture,
Approximate Word count = 723
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
